The saga of lives getting snuffed out on roads is continuing in the capital, and the year 2016 is turning out to be more dangerous than the previous year.
Till the end of October this year, 339 persons were killed in accidents on Hyderabad roads. That is 21 more deaths compared to the toll of 318 reported during the corresponding period last year.
In fact, even the year 2015 registered spurt in road accident fatalities vis-a-vis year 2014. While 302 people died in 2015 (up to October-end), deaths rose to 318 for the same period in 2014.
The paradox is that the total number of road accidents and even that of injured persons had come down this year.
While 2,090 road accidents were reported and 2,061 persons sustained injuries in 2015 (October-end), the figures dipped to 2,040 and 2,042 respectively for the same period this year. Despite less accidents, the number of deaths had gone up by 6.6 per cent, suggesting that capital’s roads are not safe..
Police of Hyderabad and Cyberabad commissionerates won accolades of different sections when fatalities in road accidents had come down considerably in 2014. From 380 deaths in 2013, the figure dipped to 302 in 2014.
That was a reduction of 20.52 per cent in road accident deaths in a single year and was described as a remarkable achievement. Such steep dip in road accident deaths was not witnessed earlier. Hyderabad Traffic Police Additional Commissioner Jitender says the progress made in 2014 could not be repeated for various reasons.
“Traffic police alone cannot check road accidents. There are different factors such as lack of sufficient safety infrastructure that result in road accidents,” he maintains.
Pavements are not of uniform design across the city. Even medians are not of equal height at all places. Rash and negligent behaviour of drivers and failure of pedestrians to take precautions while crossing the road too are resulting in accidents, said Mr. Jitender.
As road accident deaths are up, traffic police are planning to focus on Safety Related Enforcement Work using programmes like drunk driving checking.
Deploying more teams to catch persons getting behind wheels in drunken condition is part of their strategy.
